The page above (http://www.grg.org/Adams/E.HTM) wouldn't even have put that guy in the top 40, let alone "oldest". They've not recorded his death yet, but he was at 66 on their list... They have recorded the death of the person he supposedly replaced, Arturo Licata, and even that guy would only have been number 40.

I know that no site can be exactly up-to-date - they say it was last updated on May 14th this year - but it looks like they do make some effort to check things. I wonder who the people doing the "certification" in the other story are, and why there's such a difference?

(eta) Oddly, it appears to be the same people - although maybe the Torrance Gerontology Research Group isn't affiliated to the "Los Angeles, New York, Washington DC, Atlanta" GRG...

(eta again) D'oh! I think I'm still being confused by this "man" versus "person" thing. He is the first man on that list. Just that there were 65 known women who are / were older.

Since 1990, the Gerontology Research Group has assumed the role of record keepers for the world's supercentenarians, or persons older than 110. Previously, research groups, individual countries and private hobbyists tracked supercentenarians for studies or for census purposes, or simply out of personal interest. But that information was not compiled into a central, standardized database, and it was largely closed to public viewing. "I thought, this ought to be available online, so everyone can know about it," [L. Stephen] Coles says.

The fact that she was (the last known surviving person to have been) born in the 1800s is pretty amazing, really. She was born in the 19th century and lived through the entire 20th century regardless of when you think it started, and we're quite a long way into the 21st now. The last First World War veteran died a few years ago, but this woman was older than him - she'd not have needed to lie about her age in order to fight.

Quote:

Her doctor of 27 years, Carlo Bava, had told AFP news agency that she rarely ate vegetables or fruit.